Eugenio D'Amico

Glucose homeostasis in acromegaly: effects of long‐acting somatostatin analogues treatment

objective  Acromegaly is a syndrome with a high risk of impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and diabetes mellitus (DM). Somatostatin analogues, which are used for medical treatment of acromegaly, may exert different hormonal effects on glucose homeostasis. Twenty‐four active acromegalic patients were studied in order to determine the long‐term effects of octreotide‐LAR and SR‐lanreotide on insulin sensitivity and carbohydrate metabolism.

Does environmental performance affect companies’ environmental disclosure?

Purpose – This study aims to verify the presence, evolution and determinants of voluntary environmental disclosure from companies listed on the Milan Stock Exchange. The authors examined documentation of listed firms from 2006 and 2009. These years immediately precede and follow Italian legislative decree n. 32/2007, which introduced (albeit on a voluntary basis) disclosure of environment-related company information. Design/methodology/approach – The authors’ approach utilizes multivariate regression analysis. The disclosure index of the years 2006 and 2009 represents the dependent variable. Independent variables include firm size, business industry, public shareholders, legislation and environmental performance. Findings – The results show positive effects on environmental disclosure related to legislative decree n. 32, the presence of government shareholdings in firms’ ownership structure, business industry and firm size. The interrelation between firm size and environmental performance shows that large...

Patients’ mobility as an indicator for (in)efficiency:a panel data analysis on Italian health care authorities

This paper investigates the influence of internal managerial patterns of heath care authorities on the decision of patients to migrate towards different health care organizations to avail treatments. The efficiency and productivity issues are analyzed, considering the (passive) migration as a proxy for the (in)efficient service availed. We follow the “vote by feet” theorization by Tiebout , assuming that citizens can choose to avail a health treatment in a public service provider different from their resident one. The choice for a center that is far from home implies a negative judgment to the alternative health care supplier that is closer to the patient. Testing Fixed Effects Panel Model on a sample of Italian health care authorities, a strong correlation is found among variables in our model and some relevant dependence is tested between patients’ mobility behavior and their resident authorities’ efficiency in allocating resources on the proper operating cost. Spending in the proper way on health care could bring about an enhancement of performances. Instead, wasting resources is immediately perceived by the patient, who consequently seems to move to a different health care authority.JEL code: M48

Do environmental management systems affect the knowledge management process? The impact on the learning evolution and the relevance of organisational context

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how an environmental management system (EMS) might affect the environmental product innovation propensity of a firm through its influence on two factors shaping the knowledge process: the human capital management practices of training and development and the organisational context. Design/methodology/approach To test the study’s hypotheses, an empirical analysis was carried out on 262 companies drawn from 16 developed European markets included in the S&P Europe 350 Dow Jones index over the years 2005-2015.The authors adopted regression analysis by using the ordinary least squares and the binary logit econometric models. Findings Consistently with the study’s predictions, results show that for organisational contexts characterised by the presence of family owners, the EMAS-certified EMS reveals as a significant moderating factor that positively influences their approach to the knowledge management tools for the improvement of the workforce cognitive capabilities, with a significant impact on the firm’s openness towards green product innovation. On the contrary, the ISO 14001-certified EMS tends not to stimulate such proactive behaviour, in both family and non-family firms. Practical implications The findings suggest that an EMS can stimulate the knowledge exploration in the environmental protection field. To this end, top managers should overcome the bureaucratic vision of an EMS and conceive it as a knowledge management tool able to support the learning evolution of the organisation through an effective commitment to human capital management policies of training and development. Originality/value Drawing from social identity and institutional theories, this is the first study – to the best of the authors’ knowledge – that theorises and tests why the adoption of an EMS might stimulate the knowledge advancement of the organisation in a different way, especially in peculiar organisational contexts of family firms where the identity overlap between the family and the firm tends to affect the knowledge management process.

A cross-cultural perspective of voluntary disclosure: Italian listed firms in the stakeholder global context

Through this paper, we empirically studied the presence, evolution, and determinants of voluntary disclosure with reference to the Italian Stock Exchange context in a multi-stakeholder approach. In particular, we identified eight stakeholders: customers, suppliers, competitors, institutions, community, environment, human capital and corporate governance, and financial lenders. For each one, we verified its disclosure in the following years: 2006, 2009, and 2012. As far as the presence and evolution of disclosure, our results show that there has been indeed an increase of disclosure, especially during the period 2009-2012. But it is still far from the level required by international organisations (Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative; Guidelines for ESG approved by the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies; Guidelines developed as part of the CSR-SC project, prepared by the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policy). With reference to the determinants, we applied a mixed logit model for generalised binomial random variables that allowed us to see that the only variable that positively affects the disclosure of each stakeholder is the firm size.